Prior art idler plates commonly employ sheave brackets in compression wherein a sheave bracket mounted on the underside of an idler plate below a deck rigidly supports one of a pair of pulleys each passing a steering cable between a steering actuator assembly and the rudder shaft. Such a design requires the sheave bracket to provide rigid support, in turn, requiring painstaking adjustment during installation to insure proper alignment of the steering cable.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,040,375 to Atkins and 4,470,363 to Kalayjian, disclose an installation wherein the steering cables are crossed in the pedestal column and exit therefrom at an angle near 90.degree., depending on whether the cable travels directly aft or athwartship to the rudderpost. A rigid sheave bracket cannot adjust to accommodate the vertical angle change of the downwardly passing cable. Although a housing assembly may be movable horizontally to accommodate various relative rudder positions, there are still blind spots to which the steering cable cannot be run and installation of the steering cable through the sheave bracket assembly still requires painstaking adjustment to ensure proper alignment of the steering cable.